World Battlefronts: BATTLE OF THE PACIFIC: Last Charge

To the U.S. the cost of Saipan
was high 2,359 killed, 1,213 missing, 11,481 wounded. But the
military justification was high, too; in many ways, Saipan was the most
important objective yet taken by U.S. troops in the drive across the
Pacific. The Japs, who knew its value, gave it up hard. Their losses:
16,000 dead, 1,000 prisoners, countless others missing in the caves
where they were buried by explosive and by bulldozers. In this dispatch
from the battlefield, TIME Correspondent Robert Sherrod tells of the
Japs' last stand: